- THE PERFECT INTRODUCTION TO SYDNEY
- Small Groups
- 2.5 Hours
The city examined – with a focus on four contemporary masterpieces including Renzo Piano’s Aurora Place and one of Australia’s greenest towers.
Quick Details
Duration: 3 hours
Join us on this stroll around Sydney’s spectacular harbour edge, from Circular Quay, through the city’s great depository of memory – The Rocks – up Observatory Hill and on to Walsh Bay. The route is diverse, spectacular and full of surprising recent projects as well as gritty historical reminders of the cities industrial and maritime past.
Beginning with Circular Quay where the powerful forces of commerce are held back from the harbour by a bland concrete motorway, we will discuss Opera House architect Jørn Utzon’s driving ideas for Sydney as well as his vision for the Quay. We will wander discuss controversial additions to the Museum of Contemporary Art and you will discover Sydney’s brutalist masterpiece, the radical Sirius Apartment building by Tao Gofers while we unpack an upcoming scheme for redevelopment.
As we explore the area we will pluck out some surprising contemporary gems in The Rocks and Millers Point before descending on the breath-taking Walsh Bay Finger Wharves, a family of early 20th-Century industrial buildings that extend out into Sydney’s harbour. They are amongst the largest timber structures ever built, romantic symbols of Sydney’s industrial maritime history that have been reimagined as a cultural and residential precinct.
Customs House (forecourt). 31 Alfred St, Sydney – 1 minute walk from Circular Quay Station.
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SAW is a member of Guiding Architects, the international network for high-quality architecture tours.